It was 39 Years Ago Tonight (Long)

TrueGritnPluck

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Nov 21, 2011
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It was almost four decades ago now, New Year’s Eve of 1973.
New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, a recipe for magic and mischief all in itself.

But this final day of the year had a special trick up its sleeve, in the form of the Greatest College Game ever.

Undefeated Alabama , ranked #1, would finally meet Notre Dame, who was also undefeated, and only the top program all time. You can throw out any superlatives – “Game of the Century”, “Clash of the Titans”, “Ali-Frazier”, all the terms that games like these rarely seem to approach, yet this contest met and surpassed them.

It was Catholics vs Southern Baptists, Yankees vs Rednecks, North vs South – it was finally Notre Dame vs Alabama.

I sit here, some 39 years later, and my senses are still assaulted with the peculiar New Orleans sights, sounds and aromas, just as if I never left. The scents of beer and booze, strong coffee, French food and baking beignets still hover just under my nose. I smell the muddy Mississippi rolling on, stale urine, salt air, and cheap perfumes mingling with car exhaust.

I can hear the laughter, the sirens, horses clomping down the bricked streets, ice rattling in glasses, the Lucky Dog and strip club vendors working for clientele.

I still see and hear the Notre Dame and Alabama fans doing their “game prep”, the street musicians playing for a tip, the young boy tap dancing on Canal, and the street artists doing impromptu portraits for dinner money.

I could not tell you what I did for lunch a week ago Sunday, but I can paint the day of December 31, 1973 like Rembrandt.

Being the son of Alabama season ticket holders, I was fortunate to see many Alabama games. There were not nearly as many entertainment options as today, and on an autumn Saturday I could usually be found at the Alabama game, or on the Basketball court listening to John Forney and Doug Layton call the game on radio.

After Alabama rebounded from some mediocre years with the wishbone offense keying a perfect season in 1971, my family began to attend the bowl games as well. We made the long drive with friends to Miami for the Orange Bowl, in search of a National Championship against unbeaten Nebraska. Alabama was very good, hopes were high – problem was, Nebraska 1971 may have been the best team ever.

Nebraska 38 – Alabama 6.

We will get it next year, Bama fans said. Alabama was undefeated again when Auburn came to Birmingham for the season finale. Auburn could do nothing on offense, and their fans Booed when they elected for a field goal in the fourth quarter down 16-0. However, 2 improbable blocked punts, perfect bounces and TD returns on plays that were mirror images made for a most improbable 17-16 Auburn win.

A Cotton Bowl loss to Texas 17-13 only salted the wound.

We will get it next year, Bama fans said again. The 1973 Alabama team was one of our best ever, and the wishbone put up incredible numbers and points. The 1973 offense is still considered by most to be the most prolific in Alabama history. After an undefeated season capped by a 35-0 revengeful demolition of Auburn, the Tide looked to cement greatness with a win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

New Year’s Eve Day, dawned, gray and chill. I remember we savored an early breakfast at Brennan’s, a magnificent treat in itself. A morning of impatient and tense waiting brought us to a local dive that served amazing meat and veggie lunches, where I filled up on shrimp cocktail, hamburger steak with onion gravy, mashed potatoes and squash casserole. The place was packed, and looked almost like a Norman Rockwell painting.

A few hours later, we made our way to the car and made the drive to old Tulane Stadium. The temperature seemed to be dropping, the wind rising, and it was a wet, raw, cold afternoon more befitting Memphis up The River than the Crescent City.

Parking, we then made a fairly long walk through a New Orleans neighborhood towards the stadium. I was amazed at the amount of Notre Dame pennants and flags and shirts I saw, especially from the locals. I felt that being a Southern and SEC state, that Alabama would have overwhelming local support, but my Dad told me about the Catholic ties between that area and how that translated into support for Notre Dame.

I specifically remember a crowded porch, with about 10 people on it, playing the ND Victory March on an old record player, sipping cocktails and yelling “Geaux Irish”. As I stepped along the sidewalk, an older fellow (Though I guess now he would be 50 tops) stepped down off the porch, waving a ND flag at us. I gave him the best glare and “Roll Tide” a 10 year old could muster, and marched along, secure in my contribution to the cause.

Arriving at the Stadium, the wind became suddenly more biting. I zipped up my Alabama rain coat, adjusted my Crimson Felt Cowboy Hat adorned with the White felt Script A, and prepared to enter the arena. The moment was at hand.
My Dad joked that Howard Cosell better have super glued his toupee on in that wind, and I began scouring the crowd for a sight of him.

I will not dwell on the game. Our seats were in the end zone, and I watched the warm-ups intently, and caught Coaches Bryant and Parseghian chatting on the field. The game itself was a magnificent battle, that could have, should have, ended in a fitting tie, save for the fact Alabama missed an extra point. On the famed Clements to Weber pass, I was in the opposite end zone, and remember thinking………………

“Yes, He’s under pressure….Dang he got it away, but that’s a long pass, he can’t complete it, he can’t complete it, he……… expletive “

Notre Dame 24 – Alabama 23

The game ended, and I felt numbed by the elements and the bitter defeat. As we always did, (knowing some players) we made our way to the locker room entrance, outside the stadium. I clearly see the Bama team filing around and into the old cinder block locker room, the players battered, bloodied, some with blank expressions of despair and disbelief.

I remember some players, like Center Sylvester Croom, walking by with head up, but with tears flowing down sweat-stained cheeks. I remember Coach Bryant looking like he had aged a decade that night, and then the locker room door closed, and I turned away, and looked at the stars.

As time goes on, we remember certain great plays. If the games are big enough, or great enough, we remember them and how they played out.

I still FEEL that loss.

In a bitter twist of the knife, Bama and Notre Dame met again the following year, in Miami, and Bama had another National Title waiting to be won…………….
Notre Dame 13 – Alabama 11

Our Programs have not met with such high stakes on the line since, and have not played at all in a quarter century. I have long hoped for another shot like we had in 1973, but both our Programs stumbled around in the last 20 years, and I began to doubt it could ever come to pass.

And now here we are in many ways come full circle to the same place, in many ways light years away from the 1973 meeting.
Yankees vs Rednecks, Catholics vs Protestants, North vs Progressive South…………………….
Notre Dame vs Alabama,once again with a National Title at stake.


You Notre Dame guys go wake some echoes, and practice volley cheers if you like................

But I think I’m going to do a little searching in the attic, for a 39 year old Crimson Cowboy Hat..................

 

Tide Rev

All-American
Mar 22, 2000
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Thanks for that post! I still cannot watch any video of that game...the hurt is still there for me also. Great game but I do not want to relive it, see it, or anything else like that. I am hoping that next Monday night erases a lot of hurt away for me and many other Bama faithful.
 

cuda.1973

Hall of Fame
Dec 6, 2009
8,506
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As much as that game hurt (and still does), the Nebraska game hurts more. The only time I can remember it looked like we did not belong on the same field.

Maybe it galls me more, because I can still see Johnny Musso, in tears, being interviewed by some insipid talking head, asking him how he felt.

Like you had to ask, to know..................

Johnny did his best, but that memory conjures up more bad sentiments. ND comes awful dang close, though.
 

ND1976

BamaNation Citizen
Dec 4, 2012
31
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I attended Bama-ND in 1987 as well. Do you remember that fiasco?
Serious question - I'm an alum, and we alums pride ourselves on recognizing that the visiting team's fans are guests on our campus and treating them with courtesy. (Unfortunately, a few of our fans never got the memo.) How did we do in that respect on your visit?
 

TrueGritnPluck

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Nov 21, 2011
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Serious question - I'm an alum, and we alums pride ourselves on recognizing that the visiting team's fans are guests on our campus and treating them with courtesy. (Unfortunately, a few of our fans never got the memo.) How did we do in that respect on your visit?
One of the best trips I ever took re College Football

I ran into Lou H twice, and shot around with David Rivers in the E Joyce Convocation Center
 

TrueGritnPluck

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Nov 21, 2011
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I thought - hoped- this might generate some pointed conversation.

Nevertheless, I feel this is the biggest game in UA Football History.

The winner will clearly be able to claim the top spot in College Football History. After the issues of 1966, 73, 75, 77 and 80, I would love to see some righteous redemption.

I hope all aspects of Our Fanbase realize the importance of this game
 

oldtimetider

1st Team
Nov 16, 2008
342
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Great post. I remember it well too. We had family from as far away as New Mexico gathered in our east Alabama living room...some whom we had not seen in years.
It was a wonderfully festive time ....until that 3rd down completion. For the next several days you'd a thought someone had died.
In a sense, it shouldn't matter as much as it does. The irony is that it's that sense of urgency and importance that now brings our family to Tuscaloosa every two years for a reunion on Iron Bowl weekend. Nothing like football and family..........
 

1958againbear

1st Team
Jan 27, 2011
693
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0
Thanks for that post! I still cannot watch any video of that game...the hurt is still there for me also. Great game but I do not want to relive it, see it, or anything else like that. I am hoping that next Monday night erases a lot of hurt away for me and many other Bama faithful.
I thought - hoped- this might generate some pointed conversation.

Nevertheless, I feel this is the biggest game in UA Football History.

The winner will clearly be able to claim the top spot in College Football History. After the issues of 1966, 73, 75, 77 and 80, I would love to see some righteous redemption.

I hope all aspects of Our Fanbase realize the importance of this game
I hope our fans who don't go as far back as '73 don't learn the importance of this game painfully like some of us did 39 years ago. Actually I very well knew the importance then which is why that loss is still hard to deal with and why there is a sense of even more importance to this upcoming game. I try to separate out those old memories and keep this year's game in its own hugely important perspective. Perhaps if we win Monday I can connect the dots and lump it all together as part of Bama's history with ND. Beating them in a game once again with everything at stake will, I hope, finally help heal some of those old wounds. Wasn't it Coach Stallings who said that if you don't think each game is important then try losing one? Well if some of the younger set think some of us oldtimers are just being melodramatic and that this game is not that important, then I hope they don't learn what it'll feel like if we lose it. I feel confident with CNS on our sideline though, perhaps realistically more so than '73, and I'll take our chances.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
 

TheSabanator

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Oct 1, 2011
455
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Birmingham,Alabama

One of the greatest posts I have ever read. Thank you
TrueGritnPluck !


I was 13 when the game happened, and felt there was no way we would lose to them. This was our GREATEST team ever in 73. We tallied multiple NCAA records in the VA Tech game that year in Tuscaloosa. That was the first Alabama game I ever saw in real life. My dad let me use his Super 8 camera to film. There were so many scores that night, every time I started filming Willie Shelby, Wilbur Jackson, or Calvin Culliver would score......Memories.....
 
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TrueGritnPluck

Suspended
Nov 21, 2011
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I hope our fans who don't go as far back as '73 don't learn the importance of this game painfully like some of us did 39 years ago. Actually I very well knew the importance then which is why that loss is still hard to deal with and why there is a sense of even more importance to this upcoming game. I try to separate out those old memories and keep this year's game in its own hugely important perspective. Perhaps if we win Monday I can connect the dots and lump it all together as part of Bama's history with ND. Beating them in a game once again with everything at stake will, I hope, finally help heal some of those old wounds. Wasn't it Coach Stallings who said that if you don't think each game is important then try losing one? Well if some of the younger set think some of us oldtimers are just being melodramatic and that this game is not that important, then I hope they don't learn what it'll feel like if we lose it. I feel confident with CNS on our sideline though, perhaps realistically more so than '73, and I'll take our chances.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Even last year, it never seemed realistic to think we could see an Alabama - Notre Dame National Championship Game in the reasonably near future
 

Bruce014

1st Team
Aug 29, 2012
752
82
52
Alabama
Freshman year at the Capstone. Lived in Rose Towers. There was a feeling of disbelief that stunned us for weeks.
Alabama was so dominate in 1973 that losing was not in the realm of possibility.

I never liked the Baptists vs. Catholics thing, since I'm Catholic, and I don't think the Civil War comparisons are fitting, either.

But it was a 15-round heavy weight fight, for the first time ever between Bama and ND ---- and we lost.

We damn well better not lose this time around.
 

TrueGritnPluck

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Nov 21, 2011
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Thank You Boys

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